So, should Tottenham be worried
by playing teams that a few years back they only dreamed about
meeting in friendlies ?

Well. perhaps they are still
one of the best sides on the planet, but they are showing in their
own league that they are by no means invincible. Two points
from their last three games keeps them top of La Liga, but losing to
Leganes and drawing with Athletic Bilbao and Girona are not results
that people have come to expect from the red and blues. They
showed their Champions League pedigree last time out with a 4-0 home
demolition of PSV Eindhoven, with an emphasis on doing well in this
competition having only won it once in the last seven years, while
rivals Real have won three of the last four competitions.

When they click, Barcelona
are a formidable machine. Passing and moving, but working hard
with it, they can ease through the gears to dismantle teams.
Messi is the big name, but he had a disappointing World Cup, as did
Suarez and Coutinho, while the home grown players failed to help
Spain get very far in Russia too. Tottenham have been slammed
for their players having a World Cup hangover and maybe the same
thing is hitting Barca, although their players were not involved for
as long.

Mistakes have been made at the
back of the Barcelona team, exposing them to attacks that have
resulted in them losing points. The fact that Spurs will be
taking them on with half the first choice team on the sidelines does
not make it simple, but they could have challenged the Spanish club.
They still might be able to, as the three attacking midfielder in
Lamela, Son and Lucas could hit the opposition back line with their
speed and trickery. It might not be in the same class as Messi,
but could be as damaging nonetheless.

We saw last season that the
Spurs team were not over-awed by Real Madrid and took the game to
them, so another performance like that could unsettle the likes of
Jordi Alba, Pique and Semedo, but it will mean every Tottenham
player will have to be on their mettle from the start and
battle, move and pass without ceding possession, as if it is handed
to Barcelona, they will make us pay unlike Brighton and Huddersfield
have been able to recently.

I think that if a
performance like that is put in, then there is no reason why a point
can't be gained and if luck is on our side, then possibly more.

The whole reason for qualifying
for the Champions League is to pit your wits against the likes of
Barcelona and Real Madrid. While Barca have not been having the best
of times in their own league, you cannot gift them a goal after 92
seconds and then another in the last minute of the game, other wise
you will suffer. And that is what Tottenham did. The 4-2 result was
probably a fair one in the end, as Barcelona (and Messi especially)
squandered chances and we struggled in the first half to create very
much at all.

It looked like Hugo Lloris was still under the influence as he came
flying out of goal. The ball had been worked to Messi in the centre
circle and he picked out a peach of a pass to Jordi Alba on the
left, just far enough of Trippier so the Spurs full back couldn’t
touch it. Alba pulled a square ball across to Coutinho just outside
the box and he rifled it past Sanchez, who had slipped over and
Alderweireld a yard out from goal. Meanwhile, Hugo had come racing
off his line to Alba, with no hope of getting there first and
allowing a simple pass to create the goal. In a way, it was lucky
Hugo was late to get to Alba, as if he had taken him out, he could
have been red-carded and losing a player in the second minute would
have been disastrous.

Losing a goal that early didn’t dent our plans, unless the included
trying to keep it tight for 15 minutes, as we had barely held the
ball even though we kicked off. Barca were quick to close Tottenham
players on the ball and when our defenders had the ball, there was
little or no movement in front of them to find a white shirt
with their passes.

When Messi picked out another great pass to find Suarez by the
penalty spot, the ball was chested off to his left, where Coutinho
tried a spectacular waist high volley. But only succeeded in slicing
the ball straight up into the air. He reacted to knock the ball back
towards the edge of the penalty area and Rakatic performed the shot
that Coutinho wished he had by having his two feet off the floor and
getting his foot over the volley that rattled Lloris’ right hand
post on its way into the net. It was fantastic technique to keep the
ball down and to generate the amount of power in his shot to beat
Hugo’s dive.

2-0 down with an hour left and things were not looking good. The
second goal had come after Spurs looked as though they were getting
a foothold in the game. Harry Kane had let go a 25-yarder that
kicked off the turf viciously but ter Stegen was there to save on
the dive. But after Rakatic's goal, Suarez broke down the
right, out-pacing Trips and he tried to score from a tight angle
when a ball inside to a team-mate might have been the better option.
As it was his shot went off a long way past goal on the other side
of the pitch. It was half an hour after kick off that Lloris
made his first save with Coutinho's shot being straight at him.
The game was moving quickly from end to end and Son and Lamela
worked well together on the left wing and the latter's ball across
goal was deflected by Semedo and the keeper threw an arm up to stop
it going past him and grabbed it at the second attempt. Messi
hit Hugo with a shot, then the keeper had to be alert as the same
player shot at goal and Wanyama's block took the ball spinning high
into the air. Lloris got behind it as it looked like it might
fall under his bar and had to pat it down and then take it quickly,
before Suarez got at him.

The ref booked Victor and
Erik for niggly fouls, meaning they both had to watch themselves for
the remainder of the game, but Davinson did well to be quick enough
to spot a quickly taken free-kick going to Messi, setting up
Coutinho. As the ex-Liverpool man shot, the Colombian got
across and blocked it for a corner.

As Spurs fans tried to
recover form the shock of conceding the early goal, half time talk
was about how they might be able to pull this back. There was
a touching interview with Chas Hodges' wife and Ossie Ardiles, whose
accent is as impenetrable now as it was back in 1978 when he joined.

It didn't take long after
Barcelona kicked off the second half for Messi to get into the
action. We lost the bal in midfield and he was soon running at
the Tottenham defence, hitting an early shot from the edge of the
area, but we were relieved to see it coming back out of the danger
zone after it has struck the base of Hugo's right hand post.
Within five minutes, it was game on again. He was at it again
in the 51st minute, with a shot from just outside the box after
another blind side run that saw the same spot hit with unerring
accuracy. It looked like the hype about this feller was a
little overblown !! In the very next minute, Lucas and Lamela
won the ball and took it forward respectively, allowing Kane to
receive the ball inside the left of the penalty box. He shaped
to go outside, pulled the ball back inside and then curled a
delightful shot around defenders in front of him and ter Stegen
could only get a it of a hand to it, as the ball was on its
way to the back of the net. The
ground went berserk as "One of Our Own" scored to bring Spurs back
into the game.

The lead was extended again
four minutes after Kane's strike, when a Barcelona move was swept
out to the left and Alba's low cross was stepped over by both
Coutinho and Suarez, leaving Messi the inevitable goal by
side-footing home from eight yards out.

Tottenham weren't finished
and Pique was happy to hold Kane around the waist from a couple of
free-kicks and corners, then pulled Toby's shirt quite obviously,
but not obviously enough for the referee. Maybe next season
when there is VAR ? They did get another goal back, when Kane,
Winks and Son engineered a pass to Lamela outside the box and he
drove a shot at goal that came off Lengelet to take the ball out of
ter Stegen's reach and make it 2-3.

Some messing about at the
back between Sanchez and Lloris almost handed another goal to Messi,
but he was denied by a toe in to take the ball off him, but then
Dier's pass wide to Trippier saw him get in a good cross that
Semedo cleared, but only by slicing it off his boot that took the
ball wide for a corner. Llorente came on for Lamela, who had
run his socks off and was suffering with cramp, but it was Lucas who
could only hit a shot straight at ter Stegen when in a good
position, with less than ten minutes left. His next effort a
few minutes later might have pulled us level, if only it hadn't
struck Lengelet in front of goal, as it looked destined for the far
corner past the keeper.

The final nail in the coffin
came in the final minute of the 90, with the ball taken off Sissoko
and Alba playing a cross along the grass into the box. Suarez
stepped over it and Spurs had managed to leave the best player in
the world with acres of space around the penalty spot. It was
a question of waiting to see which side of the stranded Lloris the
Argentine put the ball and he hit it to the keeper's left as he went
the wrong way and that was that. 2-3 wouldn't have been a bad
score-line, but 2-4 had a bit more of a realistic reflection of the
game unfortunately.

Footballing-wise, Barcelona
are a class act and if this is not them at their best, then I
wouldn't ;like to face them where they are on their game. But
then we had half a team out, although their bench was pretty strong
and ours wasn't. But there are aspects of the Spaniards' game
that showed they are not all the perfect side are cracked up to be.
The diving to make contact look much worse than it was.
Picking up injuries that require treatment and breaking up play.
The incessant begging of the referee to book opponents (fabricating
imaginary elbows to the head in the process). The cynical
challenges. Is this the difference between Spurs as they are
and Spurs being successful in Europe ? Our bookings were for
nothing challenges in midfield. Barcelona's were to stop
breakaways that could potentially have got Tottenham back into the
game. Experience or gamesmanship ? You choose.

The referee didn't help, by
being overly generous to Barcelona with free-kicks going their way
when the other way he gave nothing. I am not sure I can trust
a referee to enforce the laws of the game properly, when he went the
whole 90 minutes without spotting one of the numerous foul throws
that the visitors dropped onto the pitch. The best was when
Busquets (I think) took one standing on one leg like a flamingo !

But that wouldn't have stopped
us going under after showing them too much respect in the first
half, even if they didn't create too much, they still finished two
of their opportunities. Then in the second, we were a little
too sloppy around our own box, with some kamikaze back-passes and
loose control allowing the ball to be picked off.

Spurs now need to do very well
in the remaining games, with PSV Eindhoven having been beaten twice,
we need six points off them in the next two games and to take
something from the last two group games against Inter and Barca.
A tall order, but it is that or a potential drop into the Europa
League and nobody wants that ... especially with our thin squad.

Tonight was a good effort but
shows there is still a long way to go. We haven't been in the
Champions League that often and while it looked as though we had got
the hang of it last season in the group matches, improvement is
still needed to catch up with the UCL regulars. But when we
are back at full strength, that might come.

Dev Chandra

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Match
facts

Gerard Pique played his
100th Champions League match.

Erik
Lamela's goal was the 8,000th Champions League goal of all time.

What you
thought

East Stan

I
think that with half the team out Spurs were a little too cautious
and showed Barcelona too much respect. The third goal was a
good example, as they had time and space without Spurs pressure on
the ball to play 23 passes before Messi drifted into the box to
finish off the move.

It is difficult to play a high pressure game against a side that is
as technically gifted as Barcelona, as they will pop the ball around
you, but it is something that we have been good at and by standing
off them, it was giving them the opportunity to play whichever pass
they wanted ... and that will hurt you.

So, next time, maybe we will
be a bit more proactive and stop them having that time on the ball.